Saturday, July 7, 2007

News clips You will Not see Televised

Breaking a longstanding RCMP, one of many Canadian spy networks, tradition of hiring from within, the federal government formally named career bureaucrat William Elliott as new full-time commissioner for the Mounties. (CTV Canada online info)

The 2-1 ruling by the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel vacated a 2006 order by a federal judge in Detroit, who found that the post-Sept. 11 warrant-less surveillance aimed at uncovering terrorist activity violated constitutional rights to privacy and free speech and the separation of powers.

Jobs gone and schools closed in Iraq. Marriages delayed and children mourned. Markets bombed and clean water in short supply. Speaking freely now a dangerous act. "We are in hell," said Solaf Mohamed Ali, 38, a Shiite woman who works in a bank. (USA Today/World)

Threatened abroad, U.S. diplomats have been hit with unprecedented security restrictions, confining many to fortress-like compounds and frustrating Bush administration efforts to get out and counter anti-U.S. sentiment. (AP)

The experience of many Canadians who have already been caught up in the web of watch lists, in areas other than flying - be it for opening bank accounts, wiring money, sending courier packages, etc. - does not bode well for the no-fly list. And my package? The one that was flagged by “Flight Guardian?” Well, I drove to a depot close to my office and sent it off - without using an account number and by paying cash.So much for the security offered by a watch list. (Faisal Kutty, a Toronto lawyer and doctoral candidate at Osgoode Hall Law School at York University)United Nations envoy tasked with re-energizing the peace process in the violence-wracked Darfur region has arrived in Sudan for fresh talks on how to kick-start political negotiations between the parties to the conflict.the progress over the past months towards holding peace talks in Darfur, where more than 200,000 people have been killed and at least 2 million others displaced from their homes amid brutal fighting since 2003. (Human Rights Education Associates, HREA)

Just because you love something or someone doesn't mean you can't live without it. Yes, life will be different, but does that necessarily mean it has to be worse? Change has to happen -- that's how you grow. (My daily horoscope)

At least 11 Palestinian militants were killed in air strikes and armed clashes during an Israeli Army incursion into central Gaza on Thursday, Palestinian medical officials said. It was one of the bloodiest days for Hamas since it took control of the Gaza Strip three weeks ago. (Taghreed El-Khodary reporting from Gaza)

John A. Rizzo has served without Senate confirmation as the acting CIA General Counsel, the agency’s top legal adviser, during most of the period since September 11, 2001. During this time, the CIA has been criticized by PHR, other human rights groups, and the international community for detention and interrogation practices which constitute torture and violate US and international law. physiciansforhumanrights

Torture, ill-treatment and killings continue to be met with persistent impunity for the security forces in Turkey, Amnesty International said in a report published today. The investigation and prosecution of serious human rights violations committed by officers of the police and gendarme are flawed and compounded by inconsistent decisions by prosecutors and judges. As a result, justice for the victims of human rights violations is delayed or denied. Human Rights Report

Terms of Employment: Permanent, Full Time, Salary: To be negotiated, Other Benefits, Anticipated Start Date: As soon as possible (they all say that), Location: Area surrounding the City of Edmonton, Alberta. Own transportation, Valid driver's license, (pay your own gas). Basic security clearance, Criminal record check (abstract) (currently costs $50.00 for every job application) (Edmonton, Alberta Job Board)

Chaplin plays Adenoid Hynkel, Dictator of Tomania who rules under the sign of the double-cross. He's a buffoon of a leader, self-absorbed, loud, overbearing, and hateful, but he's loyally lauded by his countrymen. Hynkel's impassioned speeches are improvised guttural Germanesque gibberish that mimic Hitler's rousing real-life podium calls to his people. It's a kick-in-the-pants, direct pre-nuclear-hit at a hapless, hateful Hitler. Chaplin's technique is pure Leni Riefenstahl, mocking her hero worship of Hitler.

Today, right now innocent people are being slaughtered, and left to die because of uninhibited hate. The bad guys are winning. We've ignored this story over and over again. Chaplin, the quiet king of silent-cinema, would speak out. He'd rise up, clear his throat, walk to the podium and speak loudly and sensibly to a new generation, begging for us to do the right thing, to help quiet the silent screams once again. (Chaplin Archives)

Bush Jr. is not nearly clever enough to sort through or keep up with Cheney's Machiavellian machinations. The president is so lazy and incurious, he's more than willing to let Cheney do his dirty work. Whether it is approving torture, illegal wiretapping, concentration camps and kidnappings, or coddling corporate polluters, Cheney is ready to nod OK.

The poll numbers are encouraging, as Americans see through the lies and conclude -- tragically, too late, what a mess we are in. The percentage of Americans who believe the war in Iraq was a mistake is at an all-time high, as is the percentage of those who say continued U.S. military action there is not morally justified. (Bill Gallagher)

The Lancet (the most prestigious British medical journal) concluded that, as of a year ago, 600,000 Iraqis had died violently due to the war in Iraq. That is, the Iraqi death rate for the first 39 months of the war was just about 15,000 per month.The U.S. and British governments quickly dismissed these results as "methodologically flawed," even though the researchers used standard procedures for measuring mortality in war and disaster zones."Strange times are these in which we live when old and young are taught in falsehoods school. And the one man that dares to tell the truth is called at once a lunatic and fool" ...Plato.